SWIT’s Long Player Of The Week: Radio Diaspora 2 by Radio Diaspora

I have to be honest, the term “free jazz” fills me with trepidation, I mean how many bad jams and untalented charlatans can hide under that cloak? Perhaps I’m biased or uninformed (highly likely) – anyway I have my prejudices so I approached “Radio Disapora 2” with some wariness but also with the assurance that the recording was being released on the Brazilian label Sê-lo!, which we’ve come to know and respect over the past 6 months or so.

So what do we have? Well first off – superlative and sympathetic playing across the six tracks on the album. We’ve got songs too, spoken word, fragments, samples, improvisations – improvisations that illuminate and uplift. The sinuous, fluid trumpet of Rômulo Alexis is simply breath-taking. The overall effect is an endlessly fascinating dream-journey through a city of the imagination, teeming with a million different stories.